It takes a village

Recently, a charitable organization was here in Kinshasa doing a great humanitarian service. There were doctors, nurses, and clinicians from many parts of the world. One recovery room nurse was a member and we got to know her. She related that one of the clinicians, upon finishing his work and heading for the plane said, "how could anyone live in the god-forsaken place." Well, this is not a God forsaken place. God loves the people of Africa and is blessing them daily.
We wanted to share an incredible story with everyone about God's bounteous love. There are many small villages in and around Kinshasa. Some are too remote for the missionaries to visit and teach. It is sometimes impossible for the villagers to get to a church to worship and to receive priesthood direction. There is one village, however, about 30 minutes drive (1 hour walk for many villagers) to the nearest stake center and ward building. This is a village without clean water or electricity. Like many such villages, women and children walk great distances to bring back water - if they are fortunate, it is clean - but, mostly it is not clean safe water
This is a little farming village. A return missionary's father has a farm there. On weekends, this great young return missionary goes there to help his father with the farm. While he has been there, he has told people what he did for two years as a missionary, and told them about the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (The return missionary is the young man in the suit and red tie.)

He came into the mission office one day and asked if he could take pamphlets and material out to the village to share with his friends. They, of course, gave him some materials. Then he returned and asked if the missionaries could come visit the village sometime. He came back and asked again.

Well, last week he came in with a letter signed by 140 members of the village asking to be taught more about the Church. Last Friday, the mission office couple, the returned missionary, and the assistants to the president, loaded into the van, with copies of the Book of Mormon and other pamphlets and headed for the village.

The return missionary had called ahead and told the village they were coming. When they reached the turn off to the village, a man in a bright orange shirt (you will see him in the pictures) was standing at the roadside waiting for them.

As they approached the village, people were lined up along the roadside singing and clapping their hands. They were dressed in their Sunday best. In anticipation of the arrival, they had fashioned a covered area with palm branches and flowers. Also out of bamboo, they made a seating area with a bamboo pole held up by stakes. There were too many people there to sit. The group became about 250 - not counting the children. This would create a ward.

Primary presidents and teachers, how would you like to organize this primary.

One woman came up to the Elders and said, "my brother is a member of your Church, I would like my family to be like his." Her brother, it turns out, is our bishop.
They sang hymns, taught the group, answered questions, and promised to send missionaries to teach them further. Next week they plan on taking the stake president out to meet them.

This is not a-typical. When the missionaries first went to Burundi, the country just west of DRC, and part of the mission, and famous for its wars and inhumanities, they found 1100 people waiting to be baptised. One man saw a wheel chair with an inscription, "Presented by the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints." He was so impressed, he looked up the church on the internet, studied it, gained a copy of the Book of Mormon, and Gospel Principals, and began teaching the principles of the Gospel as he understood them. Most of the people who initially joined the Church were taught by him.

In Bandundu provence of DRC, there are 1400 people who have written stating they are waiting for the Church to come there. Unfortunately, at this time Bandundu provence is too far away and far too dangerous for missionaries to go there right now. (Remember, there are only 200 miles of paved roads in a country the size of the US-east of the Mississippi) But, the Lord will provide a way for these people to receive the gospel ordinances.

In Gabon, a country in our mission - just below Cameroon (aslo in our mission) and west of Congo-Brazaville (another country in the mission) - there are several hundred people waiting for the government of Gabon to allow us in, several members also live there.
Truly, God has not forsaken this place.

Young Men Soccer Match

Saturday was one of those rare weekends when we did not have meetings, firesides, training sessions, etc. We had nothing on our agenda. So, we travelled out to Masina to watch the championship games of the Stake Young Men's Soccer program.

You should note some things in the pictures:

1. The boys are all bare footed. They do not wear shoes because they don't have shoes.

2. The field is not grassy. It is sand and junk. The sand is the loose sand that is everywhere here. It is several inches of loose sand. Which, of course, makes it hard to run and maveuver, let alone know where or how the ball will bounce when it hits the ground, or, when you try to kick it, just how much sand you will kick along with it. When they had a goal kick or any other placed kid, the rules allowed them to make a small sand mound and tee up the ball.

3. These guys play soccer very well. It was a full game of rough and tumble soccer.

4. Pink Sock guy and green long sock guy were my favorite players. one had one pink sock the other had green soccer type socks, with no shoes. Who knows where they got them, but they were proud of them.
5. In the pictures with the blue striped shirts, all of them had white socks - no shoes, but white socks.

6. We don't know where they got the uniforms - someone must have donated them.

7. We were surprised to see the unauthorized use of the yellow - Helping Hands - vests, and suggested to the Stake President that this was not the authorized use of the vests. He agreed.

8. We watched two games, the 3rd and 4th place teams, then the championship game.

9. Afterwards, they all went back over to the stake center for award ceremonies.

10. The field is about 3 blocks from the stake center. Africans are very big on protocol. The stake president and bishops were there, and of course the three missionary couples. So, young men were sent to the stake center to bring back enough chairs for the president, each bishop, and for the missionary couples. So, we sat in the shade and watched the game. After the game, the young men picked up the chairs and took them back to the stake center.

11. It was a fun day with lots of good sportsmanship and true competitive spirit.

12. There were no team moms, or half time refreshments, or after game treats.

In pictures:

The man in the center with the white shirt and pen in his pocket is President Jean Claude Mbaya, president of the Masina Stake. He is an awesome man who loves the kids and really is a great friend to us.

The ref came in a white shirt and jeans suit and shoes with his own whistle to ref the game.

The refs wer very good at officiating. No one argued with them.

Mom and others with one of the players.
Short video of soccer in the sand

Center for Young Adults contitued

Sorry, I accidently pushed 'PUBLISH' before I was through.

So, more random pictures of Center for Young Adults

Pictured:

Students in the meeting

Students outside of the building

Our blue truck - 0211 Izusu - 4x4

CENTER FOR YOUNG ADULTS

This Saturday, the five stakes in Kinshasa opened the Center For Young Adults. The center is in the building in which we are housed. This is a great building. We have a nice kitchen, a game room, class rooms, our office, and just added an "internet cafe," a room with 5 computers and a library where the young adults can come to study, social network, and just hang out.

We always have several young adults hanging around our office. They can use our three computers if PEF students are not using them for applications. Now, they have a place of their own.

The concept is to increase the number of institute classes here - there are three nice classromms - as well as adding English classes, music classes, and other cultural events.

There are few places in the DR Congo where youth can meet and socialize in a safe, clean environment.

A retired Congolese couple has been called as Center for Young Adult Coordinators. It will be their job to be here for the kids, keep things open, and of course under control.

The kick-off meeting was held Saturday. Suzanne played the piano and I made a presentation on Perpetual Education Fund, and other spoke, and then they took a tour.

Pictures include the building, the game room, and the Saturday activity.

Also pictured is our blue truck

Moving forward with PEF

PEF is moving forward. This week, we have received 25 loan approvals. These are for students who have completed and submitted their applications in the past 6 weeks. There are another 80 loans in the pipeline. The process is that they complete the application on line, then submit it. It goes electronically to the Employment Resource Center where the application is reviewed for two critical points. 1. is the chosen employment going to provide a living, is it viable in the market place, 2. is the school you have chosen going to provide the training and education that you need for this job. If the answer is "yes" to both questions, then the Employment Resource center electronically transfers the application to the area office in South Africa. Then it comes back to us for review, then it goes to South Africa again and there it is approved and sent to the PEF council in Salt Lake for final approval.

We are very excited that so many students are receiving approval to go to school.
We have just received approval for another 125 students. We began this weekend Planning for Success for 100 of the students. This is the first step to submitting the application for a loan.

We will have 700 students in school by the end of 2012. 1500 by the end of 2013.

We will open the other Congo city in January. Lulumbashi, it is a city in south eastern Congo, and the home of the other mission in the country.

We are working the government and church to gain approval to go into Brazaville in the Republic of Congo. This is our neighboring country. We look accross the Congo river and see into Brazaville. Because it is a different country, the goverment must approve it.

Needless to say we are very busy. Our Service Center (fancy name for our office) is always full of young people. We have three computers set up just for the students to work on their applications. Often, we have those three working, Suzanne and my computers being used by students applicants, and our three lap tops are also in use.

We have a Service Missionary who works three days a week. He is a great young return missionary who speaks very good English and is very bright. He is usually at work helping with applicants.

This morning, Suzanne is teaching a train-the-trainer course for English. She has people from four stakes who will teach ENLISH AS A BUSINESS LANGUAGE. She is preparing them to go back to their stakes to teach classes within the wards. We have determined not to teach English classes, but to teach locals how to teach and manage the class. If we taught the classes, we would be gone in a year and the classes would die. We have great materials for them to use. Suzanne is teaching good teaching methods and providing them with manuals and ideas. If someone can speak English, their possibility for employment goes up. Embassies, Humanitrian Organizations, retail jobs, etc.

We are well and happy. Every day is a new adventure and new excitement.

I added a fun picture of chairs stacked at a stake center. This is the only church where we have seen folding chairs, but they are used to stacking them and the "folding" concept was pretty much lost on them.

Youth - Pioneers in the Congo

Pioneer is a great word to describe the youth of the DR Congo. On 23rd, 800 young men and young women gathered at the Kinshasa Stake Center for the first ever youth conference. Three stakes, Kinshasa, Mont Ngafula, and Ngaliema, participated in phase-one of the combined stake youth conferences. Because of the distance and numbers of youth, the other two stakes in the area: Masina and Kimbanseke will meet on Saturday, July 30th.

The Bishops were asked to provide the number of youth attending from their wards. The number came back that 900 youth would attend the July 23rd conference. When several bishops were asked if that was the number of youth on their ward rolls, they responded, "yes, those are all the youth on our membership records." When asked, how many they think would attend the said (in typical African style), "most of them."

So, Saturday morning, we began registering youth. Now, you need to understand that African time in very unpredictable. We knew that the students would travel by transport from their wards. Example: there were only about 6 vehicles in the parking lot. Four of them belonged to the missionary couples. In other words, no one has cars. The kids boarded transports to get to the stake center - some taking up to two hours to travel to the conference. Many just walked.

A Sister from D.C., who is here on temporary assignment at the U.S. Embassy on a temorary assignment, was conscripted into helping. She was a great help at the registration desk.

At 9:00, start time we had about 100 youth signed in. That we thought was good. Then, they started ariving in groups (transport loads). By 10:00 am we had 300 hundred, by 10:30 it was up to 500, and they just kept coming.

The youth were divided into six groups. As the morning continued, the groups grew in size, chairs were added to classrooms, more snacks were prepared, and everyone was accomadated.

By the morning break there were over 700 young men and young women ready to eat a snack. Our final count was just about 800 youth. AMAZING.

The conference included, classes (1/2 hour each), music (Suzanne played the piano all day long - note the picture of her and the young men at the piano - she is like the pied piper of the Congo, everyone wants her to teach them to play), games, and a dance. At the end the entire group sang the two songs they had learned. The host stake president and the Area Seventy closed the meeting with very stiring (and short) talks.

Two young men, who are summer interns at the US Embassy led the games - which were played on the basketball court behind the church. One is a returned missionary who speaks French and the other is a good Catholic boy from Virginia. The kids loved them and they had a great time doing it. I asked the Catholic kid, "did you ever dream that during your Congo experience you would be teaching a bunch of Mormon kids how to play "tag?" His response, "no way, but this is the highlight of my trip."

A young couple taught the Temple mariage class. Other classes included missionary preparation, importance of being on time, Book of Mormon, etc.

It was the first time the youth of these three stakes had ever met together. It was an awesome experience for them. And for their leaders. The office missionary couple, who are very vested in the youth, were the advisors to the stake and ward young men/young women leaders.

All in all it was an awesome experience for everyone.

These young people are literally the future of the Church in the Congo. They will break old tribal traditions such as the dowery, tribalism, and lead a generation of strong leadership in a country that Heavenly Father is blessing every day.

In a country with poverty, illness, strife and a million other problems, these youth found an island of peace, safety, and the Spirit of our Heavenly Father.

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RANDOM PICTURES OF NATIVE DANCERS

HERE ARE PICTURES OF THE DANCERS. NOTE THE THREE DRUM. SEE PREVIOUS BLOG FOR DANCER STORY